The present invention relates to a disc apparatus, and in particular to a disc apparatus having a construction enabling reduction in thickness thereof and miniaturization in dimensions thereof.
An example of a magnetic disc apparatus according to related art is described below, with reference to FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2 and 3.
The magnetic disc apparatus 1 of these drawings has an ejecting button 2 for ejecting a magnetic disc cartridge (referred to simply as a "cartridge" hereinafter) which has been inserted therein. This ejecting button 2 is located in the front of the disc apparatus 1. A front bezel 3 is provided in the front of the apparatus 1. The front bezel 3 is provided with a disc inserting hole 3a and an ejecting-button guiding hole 3b.
The ejecting button 2 is inserted through the guiding hole 3b, which hole is formed by cutting out an appropriate part of the front bezel 3. Thus, movement of the ejecting button 2 is guided by the guiding hole 3b so that the ejecting button 2 may slidingly move on the internal surface of the hole 3b only along appropriate directions. The ejecting button 2 is fixed to a fixing portion 4a projecting from a front end of a slider 4. The slider 4 slides in response to a movement of the cartridge, movement by which movement the cartridge is inserted in the disc apparatus 1.
Such a movement of the slider 4, which movement comprises forward and backward movements in the drawings, is linked with a movement of a holder (not shown in the drawings) into which the cartridge is directly inserted. The slider 4 moves forward in response to the cartridge being inserted. As a result, the ejecting button 2 projects from the front face of the front bezel 3. Simultaneously, the holder is moved into a cartridge loading position. Then, when the ejecting button 2 is pushed by an operator, that is, when an ejecting operation is carried out, the slider 4 is moved. As a result of this movement of the slider 4, the holder is moved into a cartridge insertion/ejection position.
The ejecting button 2 is at the following respective positions corresponding to each state of the disc apparatus mentioned above. While the holder is at the cartridge loading position, the ejecting button 2 is projected forward from the ejecting-button guiding hole 3b of the front bezel 3 as shown in FIG. 3. In contrast to this, while the holder is at the cartridge insertion/ejection position, the ejecting button 2 is pulled into the disc apparatus 1 through the guiding hole 3b as shown in FIG. 1A.
As shown in the drawings, the ejecting button 2 is located on the right side of the disc inserting hole 3a and not at the top/bottom thereof in the disc apparatus 1. Such arrangement enables a reduction in the thickness of the disc apparatus 1. However, in addition to such a reduction in thickness of the disc apparatus, a reduction in width of the disc apparatus is also required recently due to a technical advance in the field of such a disc apparatus. Due to this advance, it is required that various office automated equipment units such as a personal computer and a word processor be miniaturized. This miniaturization requirement accordingly requires the miniaturization of such a disc apparatus (reduction in width as well as thickness thereof) employed in these office automated equipment units.
Thus, it has been proposed to locate the ejecting button 2 at the top of the hole 3a, instead of on the right side of the inserting hole 3a, so as to reduce the width of the disc apparatus 1.
However, locating the button 2 on the top of the insertion hole 3a results in the thickness of the disc apparatus 1 being significantly increased. In order to prevent such an increase in thickness, it is necessary to remove a part of the front bezel 3, which part is located on the top of the ejecting-button guiding hole 3b. However, this part to be removed acts to guide the movement of the ejecting button 2 so as to make it only move in the appropriate directions and to prevent the ejecting button 2 from moving undesirably upward/downward, in particular, upward. Thus, the removing of this part of the front bezel may result in an upward fluctuation of the ejecting button 2 while the ejecting button 2 is being moved forward/backward. As a result, the removing of the part of the front bezel may result in instability in the forward/backward sliding movement of the ejecting button 2.